1. Field
One or more embodiments of the present invention relate to a packing case for a battery, a secondary battery including the same, and a method of manufacturing the secondary battery, and more particularly, to structures of a packing case for a battery, a secondary battery including the same, and a method of manufacturing the secondary battery.
2. Description of the Related Technology
In general, secondary batteries may be chargeable and dischargeable, and are widely used in electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptop computers, camcorders, and the like. In particular, lithium secondary batteries have operating voltages that are about three times higher than those of nickel-cadmium (Ni—Cd) and nickel-hydrogen (Ni—MH) batteries, and have excellent energy densities per unit weight. Thus, there has been much development of the lithium secondary batteries.
Among lithium secondary batteries, lithium ion batteries generally use carbon in a negative electrode, a lithium-based oxide in a positive electrode, and an organic solvent electrolyte in an electrolyte. These types of batteries generate electricity by moving lithium ions between the positive electrode and the negative electrode. In order to overcome a defect of a lithium metal having a low charging and discharging efficiency, lithium ions are sometimes inserted into a carbon layer having a rapid reaction rate and thus rapid charging is made possible.
Lithium secondary batteries may be divided into liquid electrolyte batteries and polymer electrolyte batteries according to electrolyte type. In general, batteries using liquid electrolytes denote lithium ion batteries, and batteries using polymer electrolytes denote lithium polymer batteries.
It may be difficult to identify external defects of an electrode assembly, in which a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a separator are rolled or stacked, and a packing case for a battery containing an electrolyte.